


The Next Time Around

by ohbibs



Category: Grey's Anatomy, Grey's Anatomy: B-Team (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-22 23:59:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19139476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohbibs/pseuds/ohbibs
Summary: What if Nico never winked at Levi on that first surgery? What if he found out Levi never kissed a guy before cornering him into an elevator?Now Levi is already a resident and suddenly wants to find Nico a date. The ortho surgeon doesn’t know how to feel about this.AU in which Nico and Levi tiptoe around each other for months before things get a little complicated.





	The Next Time Around

1.

Nico first notices him inside the OR right into the first day of his fellowship.

Avery, Hunt and Link are engrossed on this weird existential conversation that turns into an aphorism fest. He even offers his two cents by singsonging “when one door closes another door opens?” and almost laughs when Avery, the one who started the whole thing, changes the subject to smother his discomfort about the monster he created. The attendings keep rambling on about other stuff, but Nico tries to focus on Link working on the X fix. He’s got to soak in every inch of experience if he’s going to be the best. And damn right he will. It is the movement on the corner of the room, behind all the attendings, that snatches his attention, though.

The intern with glasses framing big eyes, that could either be green or light brown or both, is bouncing on his feet so he can see from behind all the tall doctors. He’s that small and it just adds to Nico’s interest. One second the intern is looking at Link’s working hands, then he’s staring right at Nico, full of curiosity and bubbling energy.

Nico looks down, trying to concentrate and then looks up again. He wants to be able to see the face that goes with those eyes, but he’s already categorised this one as Cute Intern. He smirks to himself, thankful for being hidden by the surgical mask. The most absurd thought - winking at him - crosses his mind and when he’s about to act on it, Cute Intern’s eyes are glued back to the X fix in progress.

There is no problem though, there will be more opportunities.

 

 

 

2.

Cute Intern is cuter than Nico anticipated. The small dude’s got a slight scruff around soft lips that are always moving, either stuttering, asking questions, biting his lower lip in concentration or sticking his tongue out. Nico has started daydreaming about kissing those lips at this point. He feels a little stupid, like he’s back in high school with a crush on the boy from the marching band and-

“Hey.” Link taps him on the shoulder and shoves a tablet on his hands. “Stop mooning over the intern and get some work done, dude.” his chastising tone is light, though, and he is smiling while he says it.

“I can do both at the same time.” Nico shrugs and grins. “I’m that good.”

Link laughs at that.

 

 

 

3.

The next day he finds out Cute Intern’s name from a conversation he overhears and gets to watch Schmitt lock himself up inside a hyperbaric chamber along with Avery to try and save the patient from yesterday’s surgery. It looks like it’s going to work, and the intern is all resolve and focus after a bit of stumbling around. Nico silently cheers for him. But then everything goes down the drain and the patient codes. There are no paddles, only a lot of rounds of epi.

He catches Schmitt later at Joe’s. Despite being aware that his first name is Levi,  he kind of wants to earn first name basis before doing it in his own head. So Nico buys him a beer, because of the rough day. Schmitt’s deer in the headlights reaction is adorable and Nico is a little scared of how obsessed he is about a dude he’s didn’t even talk to yet. Well, he’s about to change that.

But suddenly Link is gesturing from the corner of the bar like he’s having a seizure and it actually looks urgent. So he tells Schmitt he’ll be right back. When the intern offers to pay him for the beer Nico says “You’ll get the next one” and goes over to Link to see what the fuss is about. He kind of hopes the next one will be on the next half hour.

It all changes when Link drops a bucket of water on his recent and pointless little crush.

“What with all the gesturing, dude? I just got an excuse to talk to Cute Intern.”

“Sorry, buddy.” Link holds Nico by on shoulder and raises his eyebrows “I wanted to give you the heads up before you got in too deep and embarrass yourself.”

Nico huffs at that.

“Says the guy who’s already asked half of the hospital out and got turned down.”

Link has the spirit to honestly laugh at that.

“Sure, I’m a contender. But at least those ladies were straight.” He wiggles his eyebrows while Nico’s furrow at that.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean your cute intern sleeps with women.”

Now Nico is going to need more beer. And not from Cute Intern, because he seems to be off limits.

 

 

 

4.

“We should find you someone.” Levi says in greeting, leaning his elbows on the nurse station right beside Nico.

“Say what?” Nico answers with eyebrows raised “Did your haywire brain finally managed to mix up the words for ‘Good morning’? Do I have to page Shepherd?”

“Ha-ha. You’re very funny, _dude_ .” Levi says poking Nico with an elbow while making fun of the orthopaedic surgeon’s constant use of the word _dude_ for the sake of habit.

Despite Nico’s rule of staying away from straight crushes, he ended up becoming kind of friends with Schmitt. Co-worker friends, at least. Mostly due to the fact that Levi had been like an eager puppy asking questions all the time. And although Nico vowed to himself to stop with the flirting he couldn’t manage to be cold towards Cute Intern.

After one year and a half, their mentoring relationship had evolved to camaraderie filled with easy banter between colleagues. The mentoring part ended when, right into his first resident year, Levi admitted he was going to focus on trauma. Because conducting chaos was so much cooler than fixing bones. This had been fuel for an entire week of mock debates filled with teasing and laughter on which specialty was the best.

For the past eighteen months or so, Nico also got to see Levi go from clumsy and bumbling intern to fierce and focused resident hellbent on being the best trauma surgeon Grey Sloan has ever seen. He got rid of his infamous glasses in favor of contacts ‘Cause it always gets in the way’, Levi’s words. And it should have taken down a notch on the whole nerdy vibe, but the lack of filter and weird comic book references remained, to Nico’s relief. Because that was part of the whole Schmitt charm, to begin with. It would be a pity to see it gone. Not that Nico is harboring any secret crush for Schmitt. No way. They’re only work-friends. Nico makes sure of keeping personal stuff to a minimum between them. Although admiring the resident’s quirky smile in secret couldn’t do any harm. Could it?

But right now Levi seems set on changing Nico’s rule about keeping things professional.

“Seriously, It’s almost Valentine’s day and everyone is paired up.” The intern goes on  “Link managed to finally get something good with Shepherd. Even Taryn has a _date_.” Levi states like it there is some hidden logic behind his words and gestures towards Nico. “You can’t just be alone.”

Nico snorts.

“Did you get your coffee this morning? Cause you’re not making much sense. Besides,” he raises one eyebrow and inches a bit closer “I don’t see you dating anyone.”

If Nico’s stomach flips in anticipation and fear of hearing that Levi is actually dating someone, he chooses to ignore. He calls it early morning hunger, because of his crazy fast metabolism. That's better.

“Well, _I’m_ kind of undatable.” Levi rolls his eyes and Nico opens his mouth to object to that, but thank god Levi has the habit of interrupting him. “And that’s beside the point. We are talking about you. We have to-”

And Levi is cut by his pager going off. The slight fire that lights up in his eyes is enough for Nico to know that there is a major trauma coming in. He watches the small resident spring up and walk backwards down the corridor.

“Gotta go, but we’re not finished with this, Dr Kim!” he says before turning and breaking into a sprint with a glint on his smile.

Nico can’t avoid smiling while he watches Schmitt disappear around the corridor. This resident is downright crazy, and yet he can’t help finding it endearing.

 

5.

Nico breaks into the research lab and drops into a chair with zero elegance. He throws his lunch bag on the table, forcing Carina to look up from the folders she’s reviewing.

“Schmitt got me a date.” he huffs and crosses his arms.

The woman’s eyes light up and she even pushes the paperwork on her hands away, inching forward.

“Really? That’s great news! I have been rooting for you two to be together for a while.”

“ _He’s_ not my date. He’s found _me_ a blind date with god knows who.” He rolls his eyes, teeth grinding. “ He just walked up to me when I was leaving the OR, told me the freaking news and stalked off before I could scream at him.”

Carina mouths a silent “Oh”. She reaches into Nico’s lunch bag to whisk away half of his very healthy sandwich because she already knows he’s no good at eating when he’s pissed off.

“Why are you so upset? I thought you didn’t want to take a hit on Schmitt after finding out he has dated girls. Did you want your date to be him?”

“It’s hitting _on_ , not taking a hit at. And no, I don’t want to hit on him or date him ‘cause I’ve been over falling for straight dudes since I was seventeen.”

“You still think he’s straight because he slept with Jo Karev? He might be bisexual, for all we know. There _is_ such a thing as bisexual people, you know?” She gestures to herself.

“I know, it’s just. He’s never given a hint to find dudes attractive and even _if_ he is bisexual he’s bound to be in the closet.”

“Well, you could always ask.”

Nico shakes his head.

“We don’t talk about this kind of stuff.”

“I can find out if you want.” Carina raises her eyebrows with the same expression she has before launching into a detailed technical explanation about something sex-related.

“No, thanks. Cute Intern is off limits.”

Carina laughs at that.

“And you still call him that? Well, if you’re not going to do something about your cute _resident_ , wouldn’t it be nice to meet someone??

Nico rubs his face with excessive force.

“I dunno. Don’t have time for it right now. Gotta focus on the attending job and getting the grant for the titanium joints thing.”

Carina sighs quietly, after munching on his freaking lunch.

“That’s ok too, Nico” she takes a soothing tone, and now he’s become one of her pregnant patients about to give birth, great. “Why are you so mad?”

Nico stands up.

“Because I hate people messing with my life.” he grunts and starts walking off. “I’m gonna find him and tell him to cancel this goddamn thing. Right now!”

He can hear Carina laughing by herself before the door slams shut.

 

 

6.

Confident Levi is a menace.

Nico wouldn’t have cheered on him during his whole intern year if he knew he’d become that. There had been pep talks on how Levi had in him be a great doctor and constant assurance the intern wasn’t a failure. Now, this tiny scruffy monster has turned into a resident that can out talk a six-foot-tall attending and get him into a club to meet a total stranger like it makes the most sense in the world.

Levi slams a shot that looks like tequila on the high table that Nico has been standing by for the last ten minutes. The music is loud, colorful lighting and people around are having too much fun for his taste.

“To loosen your sour face up.” Levi grins and raises his own shot in a silent cheer.

Nico downs the drink with a rage that has been bubbling up his stomach for some time. He’s about to say something snarky and potentially rude when Levi starts bouncing up and down, hand raised.

“There he is. Hey Theo!” he screams pointlessly over the pumping bass echoing all around.

A buff blond dude seems to notice the bouncy resident and smiles lightly making his way towards them.

He has a look that some people may find attractive and Nico can actually see it from a standard perspective. Tall muscular dude with a square jaw and styled hair, trim waist and symmetrical smile. He’d be right at home on some men’s health magazine. Trouble is it doesn’t do much for Nico. Sure, if he was desperate for sex he’d bang the dude alright. But long has been the time where he could actually stand one night stands - pun intended. Now he wants someone he can hold and kiss and smother a little after doing the actual banging. And before too. And he doesn't want to do any of those things to the standard ken doll.  The one he’d like to do it, though...

“ Levi! What's up?” Ken doll fist bumps the small man and smiles at Nico after that.

“Hey” Levi answers back all satisfied with himself. “Theo, this the Nico I’ve been telling about.” he actually laughs at his bizarre wording. Nico does feel like some sort of pot plant people talk about and offer around sprouts so they can be grown at home. Levi gestures at the dude “Nico, this is Theo. He’s a nurse at SeattlePres. He likes hiking and CrossFit and all those other sports that involve balls too. Now you boys have fun.” he slaps Nico’s shoulder, winks at him - the cheeky bastard - and saunters off to the dance floor.

“So, this is a bit weird.” the Theo dude scratches his head. “I’m not used to blind dates, but your friend was actually pretty unshakable about it? He’s a weird guy, but an all-around nice one.”

Nico has to smile at that because it is somehow a decent description of Levi.

“Tell me about it. He’s kind of dragged me down here.”

And this is enough to get them talking about how crazy Levi is. Apparently, Theo met Levi when the resident was accompanying Grey on some fancy surgery only she could perform and it had to be on SeattlePres because the patient couldn’t be transported.

“The little guy has some energy on him.” Theo laughs. “We got to chat on the coffee line and then he’s talking about his best friend and how he’d be my type because he’s amazing and all and I had to meet him. And then I’m being looped into all of this.”

Nico’s stomach does a flip at that. He was Levi’s best friend? He always thought the title was firmly secured by Helm, but there is warm pleasure seeping through his veins on hearing that. Come to think Levi is the type of people who’d have at least five best friends. That would be alright: Parker, Helm, Qadri, Nico himself. Nico thinks he’d even call Hunt his best friend given the opportunity and he can’t help laughing at that.

“Yeah, kind of funny.” Theo replies with a grin. Because of course he thinks Nico is actually responding to what he said, and not mooning over another guy across the dance floor.

Theo is actually a cool guy. Maybe Nico could have made himself have an interest if his eyes didn’t insist on drifting towards the dance floor every thirty seconds to watch Levi dancing ridiculously with Helm. It’s actually bizarre how he can manage to make those jerky moves look sexy. And that’s when he notices he’s lost track of the conversation.

“Dude” he interrupts Theo’s remark on... something, putting one hand up. “I’m sorry Levi made it look like I’m looking for someone. I don’t want to sound like a douche but I’m kind of… not available at the moment?.”

Theo raises an eyebrow at that, but he ends up being a total champ. Some lucky guy will end up scoring him someday. But apparently, Nico is stuck with bouncy, crazy, cute and unavailable.

 

7.

Levi is dancing it out. That’s what he does now. He doesn’t stumble, doesn’t whine. He dances it out. It had been actually something that Dr Grey said when they had some sort of moment. It happened after they lost a patient that seemed so much like she was going to make it.

“Bad stuff happens, Schmitt.” she had said, sitting on the floor of the empty corridor at night, right beside him. Both were exhausted and depressed right after calling time of death. “Believe me, I’ve seen darkness like no one else.” then she had smiled a tired, but sincere, smile. “But sometimes you have to dance it out.”

She had actually pulled up her smartphone, conjured a tune with brass and drums. They shook their shoulders and hands awkwardly together for a minute before getting up and going separate ways. Now Levi has bragging rights about having danced it out with a Catherine Fox Award recipient. There is only going up from there.

So he dances it out while he tells himself that he’s not there flirting and having fun with Nico because he’s way out of the ortho attending’s league. But he gets to see the last one of his best friends being happily paired up to a cute guy and that’s the closest thing to his own happiness right now.

He sneaks a quick glance towards Theo and Nico and they’re both laughing. For the smallest of moments, Levi’s fake ass grin slips up a little. He looks back at Taryn and puts more effort on his moves, snapping his lips back up. She notices it, though.

“Why do you even do this to yourself?” she screams over the music with her typical exasperated look. “You should be getting _yourself_ a man, not Nico.”

“I’ve got a plan figured it out for myself.” he shouts back “I’m starting to buy one cat a year after I finish my residence. I’m gonna be a single-cat-dude and when I die alone my forty-five kittens will eat my body before anyone finds it.”

Taryn shakes her head.

“You’re crazy!”

Levi’s response to that is a shrug that blends to shimmying into his next dance move while he wiggles his eyebrows. This gets Taryn to laugh and its enough for now.

This whole charade was because of her. Taryn finally got a date with someone who seemed to like her the way she deserves, Carina DeLucca of all people. He’d been so happy for her. It was almost like he was being asked out by someone amazing by proxy. He had even wondered if being asked out by Nico would feel like that.

But apparently, as much as Levi daydreams about Nico, the tall and dreamy ortho god is off limits.

Nico was actually the reason Levi realised why all his dates with girls were a series of fiascos, the apex being and his weird thing with Dr Wilson-Now-Turned-Karev. It was a few weeks of being hypnotized by Nico’s hands when working, Nico’s eyes when working. Then it was Nico’s everything everywhere every time. And it made Levi realise the thing he felt for guys his entire life was not a series of hero-worship complexes but downright attraction. Yep. He figured out he was gay at twenty-five because that’s how weird he was.

And the weirdness thing was the final piece of the puzzle. He realised that yes, he was a weird guy - a weird _dude_ in Nico speech - and that was ok. It was more than ok, it was _him_ . So it wasn’t so much as accepting he was gay but _owning_ his weirdness. Then he starts bumbling less, tripping less, getting more things done than messing them up. And Nico had also been along every step of the way cheering him on.

But the thing is that every time he had tried to get closer to Nico, the ortho fellow shut him out. The constant questioning and insistence on how Nico was such a good teacher were Levi's first awkward attempts at flirting. But after Nico showed to be attentive but distant, he settled for getting a mentor. Levi resigned himself to being professional best buddies with him. It didn't stop him from being over the moon when Nico went from ortho fellow to ortho attending by the end of last year.

And then Valentine day is coming. Taryn tells him Carina DeLucca asked her out and she’s goddamn happy about it and it makes Levi crazy happy too. So he starts paying attention at people around, how some of them get better when they get paired up. Like Shepherd who stopped being such a train wreck after getting together with Link. And Link being way less stressed ever since.

When Levi looks at Nico he sees how much time they spend together at the hospital. The ortho guy is in there all the time. For Levi, the crazy hours are expected. He’s a first-year resident and he’s supposed to slave off to learn from the awesome people around him. But Nico has done the work, he’s an attending now. But he’s still logging loads of OR hours and lab hours. Doing extra shifts and even staying late to fill freaking forms, instead of laying back, enjoying cool surgeries, making interns do his post-ops and getting eight-hour sleep nights.

So Levi gets in his head that he has to do something because Nico’s mere presence on his life has already done so much for him. Then this crazy idea of setting the big guy up comes to his mind and, yes it is a bit stupid, but in his head, it works. Levi just has to get Nico head over hills with someone so he starts enjoying life more. The frequent sour moods would go away and everyone would be happy. Even Levi can be happy because despite being alone his best friends are all going to be happy. And now they’re here and his plan is working.

So he’s not allowing self-pity to take it all away. He’s dancing it out.

 

 

8.

Levi jumps when he feels someone dance-bumping him from behind. He’s not used to flirting with strangers, but who knows, Maybe even he will get lucky tonight. If only he gets himself to stop thinking about Nico. When he turns around, the object of his thoughts is right in front of him, dancing a little goofy. The lopsided grin on his face makes it all sexy though.

There is a spike of happiness from seeing Nico so close and actually smiling. Levi moves so Taryn is included and the three can have some stupid dancing fun together. But something is missing.

Levi actually leans up to shout at Nico’s ear.

“Where is Theo?”

“Gone.” Nico shouts back.

“Oh. You guys seemed perfect for each other!” He tries to sound dejected and sympathetic, instead of kind of happy.

Nico eyes seem like they snap. He narrows them, takes a step back, shoves a hand into his hair and makes a wild gesture, mouthing words that Levi can’t actually hear because of all the music pumping around.

“Wait, where are you going?” Levi tries for shouting, but Nico is already on his way out of the dance floor.

Levi looks helplessly to Taryn. She shrugs.

“Go after him!.” she says “I have to hit the restroom, anyway. Meet you by the bar in a few, ok?”

Levi bounces his head up and down and jerkily sprints after after Nico. Luckily his tall mop of swooped up perfect hair is easy to follow sticking up above the crowd.

 

 

 

9.

“Nico, wait up!”

Nico doesn’t want to, but he stops right in the middle of the way between the club’s entrance and where he parked his car. Levi’s jogging footsteps come louder and louder until they stop. Heavy breathing echoes, and even though Nico doesn’t turn to look, he can picture the small man bending over, resting his hands on his knees.

“What happened in there?” Levi finally blurts and makes his way around so they’re face to face.

Nico’s hands are curl up into fists and he has no idea where all the anger is coming from. But damn he’s right to the boiling point.

“You were being annoying, that’s what happened.” Nico snaps, and it’s like he’s not in control of his own actions. Deep down he’s telling himself that he doesn’t want to talk to Levi like this, but somehow it comes out on its own.

“Hey, I’m sorry! I thought you were having a good time. I only wanted to help. ” the resident’s hands come up apologetically, his mouth half open. He’s so freaking good looking. And unavailable.  Somehow this fuels Nico’s anger a little more.

“I didn’t ask for your help, Levi” Nico barks, and Levi recoils at that. “I can get laid on my own if and _when_ I want to. I know this must be a foreign concept for you, given your failed history with women” He looks Levi up and down, almost sneering “Yeah, Jo Karev still tells people about that. But I don’t need anyone finding me a fuck, so thank you, but no.”

“I didn’t want-” Levi begins, but now Nico is on a rant.

“And you know what? Just freaking keep away from me. I’m done with babysitting you through your fuck-ups so you can be less a mess of a resident. You can annoy the hell out of whatever attending who will put up with your shit. I’m done!”

And he stalks off past a frowning and freezed Levi, towards his car. He’s seeing is red around the edges of his vision. His head thumps against the steering wheel when he gets in because there is so much going on inside of it.

First he wanted to dance with Levi because it looked like something fun to save the disaster that was this night. Then he felt like freaking kissing the dude, because he’s bizarrely cute with the weird moves and all. Then he’s being asked about that ken doll of a blind date and it sets him off. He wanted to scream to Levi “fuck that dude, I want YOU” and then kiss the lights out of him, but he remembered he simply couldn’t do it. And the floodgates of his anger had been opened just like that.

Now he wishes Levi didn’t come after him, that he had time to cool off. All those dumb things Nico spat out come biting into his conscience and now, along with all the rage and hopelessness, he’s feeling guilty too

“Great ent to a fucked up night, Kim.” he mutters when he starts the car.

 

10.

Carina and Link actually corner Nico on the lab a couple of days later.

"We have to talk, bud." Link starts off with a frown.

Both of them stand in front of the door, arms crossed.

"Is this an intervention now?" Nico huffs, halfway into rolling his eyes.

"Yes." Carina says like it is some obvious scientific truth that Nico needs some sort of help.

"We can accept that you may be going through some rough patch or something, man" Link begins, pulling a chair and straddling it backwards "But you're starting to cross a line from grumpy to downright asshole."

Nico is silent, eyebrows raised. He actually wants to punch something, which he finds weird, come to think.

“Rolling your eyes at Altman, of all people, is already bad. But badmouthing Weber during surgery? That’s career suicide, man. Are you this mad because you can’t get into a dude’s pants, really?”

Nico narrows his eyes at Carina then back at Link. She’s supposed to be the only one who knows about his stupid infatuation. And even that is over now. It’s been two days since Levi has been avoiding Nico like the plague. Right like he asked to. And it all feels like a great pile of steaming shit.

“Actually” Carina starts “research shows that sexual frustration can be the cause of psychological-”

“Not now” both Link and Nico snap at Carina and she actually smiles and raises her hands in apology.

There is a second of silence and they all snort at the whole thing. Some of the tension seeps away slightly and oddly Nico feels like he can take a breath.

“Look, I’m sorry ok? I’ll try to get it under control.” he shrugs.

Link and Carina look at each other, some silent conversation playing between them. Then Link sighs and sits up straighter.

“I think I was responsible for this whole mess with Schmitt since I was the one gossiping about who he sleeps with. So at least I think I can fix that part now.” he smiles like he owns the answers to medicine’s most asked questions “Did you know that Schmitt is gay, Kim?”

“What? He’s not.”

“Yeah, he is. He’s come out to his intern friends a good year ago. Something about finally realising it and shit. And if you talked to me about those things I’d have told you a long time before, dude. Why didn’t you tell me you were pining like a schoolgirl after the guy?”

“Because you’re an ass, that’s why.” Nico grunts.

“I’m going to ignore this and not punch you in the face because clearly, you’re already miserable enough. But the good news is that now you know can do something about all this brokenhearted misery of yours. So man up, Kim.”

Link stands and saunters off like he’s just saved the day. Carina is left studying Nico like he’s one of her guinea pigs.

“Deep down you always knew Schmitt is gay, didn’t you?” she finally says.

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t think you’ve been keeping him at arm’s length because you thought he was straight, or in the closet. I think you’re afraid of being hurt.” she says like she’s having a breakthrough. “Have you never liked someone as much as you like Schmitt? Or maybe you did, but got your heart injured?”

“Broken. Broken heart, Carina. And you’re not my shrink, so you can save the psychoanalysis.”

Nico stands and makes for the exit.

“It’s ok not wanting to be hurt, you know?” she says, and it kind of stops him on his tracks. “Nobody wants to. But if we don’t open up and take a risk, we never find any joy either. Avoiding hurt is just not worth it, in the end.” she concludes matter-of-factly. And now Nico is frozen on the spot, something cold uncoiling on his stomach.

“Maybe you should take a leap in faith.” Carina says quietly, and she’s actually the one who leaves Nico alone on the lab.

He can’t remember how long it takes before he manages to move again.

 

11.

Nico is usually quick with his mind when the subject is medicine. He learns fast, thinks fast, acts faster. He’s precise, a perfectionist, and it shows. But when it comes to emotions, he hates to admit he’s a little slow. Sometimes he doesn’t talk about it, ignores what he feels. He tricks himself into believing nothing is going on, shoves his face into work until it goes away. But Levi Schmitt is not going away from his head, it seems. Maybe because it has something to do with his heart too, and it’s ridiculous that for someone who’s really dumb with emotions, Nico is also this cheesy.

It takes him some good three days after Carina’s and Link’s intervention for him to begin sorting himself out.

He goes on his morning runs, spends some extra time on the gym burning the anger away. Then finally what is left is his fear and the _want_ he feels for Levi. To hear him talk about nerdy stuff, or about patients and his cool trauma cases, or gush about assisting on Grey’s surgeries or how Altman is both a trauma and a cardio genius.

It’s been five days since he was a total ass to the resident. Five days of seeing him turn around when seeing Nico, not working on ortho, not getting coffee together. And he misses his Cute Intern. He never thought he’d miss him so much. The banter, the laughter, the companionable silences while eating lunch. Shit, he’s spent the better part of last year trying to get over Schmitt while doing the exact opposite.

So after coming to his senses, he does the first thing he needs to. He gets home on his day off, after sweating it out on the gym,  calls Nadia and tells his big sister about everything. Two hours later and she’s tearing him a new one like he knew she’d do. He kind of needs it. That’s what Nadia is for, she puts his smug ass on his place.

“You’re right.” He finally breathes on the phone when she finishes. He’s hunched on his couch, feet propped on the coffee table, sweatpants and hoodie on, messy hair from drying with no product or a blow-dryer.

“ _Of course I’m right. I always am_ .” she deadpans and finally her voice softens. “ _Now that you’ve been humbled, you know what to do, little brother_.” she sighs.

“I do?”

“ _Yes,  you do.”_ And now she’s using the tone that pops up when she narrows her eyes. “ _But just because I’m a good big sister and you’re too dumb to understand your own thoughts without seven hours on the treadmill I’m going to spell it out for you. Go get your man!”_

And she hangs up, in typical Nadia fashion.

 

12.

When Nico starts to try and talk to Levi at the hospital the next day, he finds out two new things about the resident.

The first is that Levi is so good at disappearing in plain sight that if he ever gets tired of being a doctor he can try his hand at being a professional ninja. Ninety-percent of the time he spots Levi around the corner of his eye, the resident vanishes in the next moment. He even tries to page Levi to an ortho case and moments later Parker is showing up with a very unfriendly expression that dares Nico to ask why he answered the page instead of Levi.

The second thing is that Levi is a favorite between the nurses. The few times in which Nico comes close to cornering Levi, a random nurse shows up giving Nico the stinky eye and producing a random form to be filled or some pointless problem about what kind of IV pedestal was appropriate.

Nico starts to notice that the nurses actually give him the stinky eye every time they’re aware of his presence. It’s kind of scary.

This sort of bad dream keeps going on for his whole 12-hour shift and Nico is feeling antsy by the end of it. His previous anger has already melted into something akin to frustration mixed with determination to talk to Levi and at least apologize. He has no idea what he’s going to say, but first things first. He has to get the resident to allow him to speak to him. And there is Levi by the entrance, engrossed in conversation with Qadri, Helm and Parker. He’s munching on his lower lip paying attention to something Qadri is telling the group, bunched up inside a jacket and a ridiculous grandpa-looking plaid shirt, holding onto the straps of his oversized backpack.

Nico breathes in, squares himself up and marches right towards their little group. The conversation stills a good hundred feet before he reaches them. Three pairs of eyes are shooting daggers at Nico, while Levi starts bouncing his right foot and looks around like he’s about to find Waldo hiding nearby.

Both Qadri and Helm are ready to launch into saying something that’s probably not going to be nice, but Nico beats them to it.

“I really need to talk to you.” He says with force, but pleading at the same time, looking right at Levi.

His brown-green eyes finally fix themselves on Nico and stare silently for a beat, mouth hanging slightly open in thought.

“Okay” Levi croaks the way he does when he’s trying to contain any kind of strong emotion. It makes Nico want to hug him and tell him everything is ok. Maybe he’ll get a chance to do it someday.

Helm turns to Levi and mouths “Really?” at him, while Qadri rolls her eyes and Parker looks upwards as if asking the heavens for patience.

Levi shrugs.

“It’s okay, guys. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Helm shrugs and all of them pat Levi’s shoulders in goodbye before shooting their own disapproving looks towards Nico and leaving.

Nico lets a big breath out. Some of the tension eases. And now he has to say something and has no idea what it’s going to be.

“So?” Levi says, his eyebrows high up. And is that a hint of a smile?

“I’m, uh.” Nico fumbles to find his words and that’s new. Seems like it’s all inverted from when they first met. “Let’s not do it here. Come back with me to mine?”

Levi tilts his head before nodding and whispering “Okay.”

“Cool” Nico says, gesturing with his head for the resident to follow him across the parking lot. He’ll get all the time he can to find the right words so he won’t fuck everything up.

 

13.

Silence fills every corner of the car while the streets pass by. Nico’s mind is racing around where to begin and how much to say. At this point, he’s pretty sure his former crush on the resident developed into its own monster after all this time. It took so long for him to admit it to himself that Nico is a little pissed. The worry that he might scare Levi by saying something really inappropriate starts sneaking into his head.

“Are you going to murder me?” Levi finally blurts out.

Nico has to smile at that because that’s textbook nervous Levi.

“Yeah, even brought a saw bone on my backpack.” he answers without taking his eyes off the street.

Levi rests his head back on his seat.”I hope it’s the good one, so it's quick. You know I get queasy when I see my own blood.”

Nico snorts.

“You’re something, Schmitt.” he says pulling a cool and collected façade, topping it up with a smirk. And that’s the most he can muster right now without melting into a puddle of cheesy goo and saying something with too much emotion in it.

 _You’re so fucking gone, Kim,_ he thinks to himself. But strangely, he’s not scared anymore.

 

 

14.

There is something weird about Nico right now. First, he’s all resolute and Levi figures he’s simply going to apologize. He figures he’ll say something like “ _let’s get back to our weird kind of friendship where everything is fun and light but we keep each other at arm's length”_. And few days before Levi was sure he wasn’t up for nice but distant Nico anymore. Because fuck Dr Kim if he couldn’t even let Levi be his friend properly. But now, being this close again, Levi realises how much he misses Nico’s presence and he’ll take whatever he can get. He’s that pathetic, apparently.

But suddenly Nico is stuttering - that is a first - and using the classic diversion tactics of “let’s talk somewhere else, not here”. Levi is okay with that, though, because he’s never been to Nico’s place and that is a little like knowing the ortho surgeon better, right?

Then the silent ride, the small banter and Nico starts talking to Levi with something different in his voice. Is not like he changes his tone to talk to Levi, but there is something softer underlying his words. Like undisguised affection. Maybe Levi is hallucinating.

Suddenly Nico is opening the door of the car for him - how the hell did he get out that fast? - and he puts a hand on the small of Levi’s back to guide him towards the building’s entrance and it sends a chill up the resident’s spine.

Levi starts to chastise himself to stop seeing things where they don’t exist. Nico is only feeling guilty for being an ass the other day and Levi is so much of a pushover for this guy that he’s already forgiven him without even realising.

“So, this is me.” Nico’s voice brings Levi back to reality.

The apartment looks nice. Nico is a neat freak, of course, so everything is squeaky clean. Neutral, clear tones on the furniture, a bookcase, a big flat screen and a couch that looks really comfy.

“You can take off your coat if you want.” Nico says, already prying Levi’s heavy backpack from his shoulders and setting it on a small table. “Want something to drink?”

Levi shakes his head no and paces around while Nico gets himself a bottle of water and chugs half of it in one gulp. His throat bobs up and down and Levi stares a little before shaking his head and looking at the big windows. The view from the apartment is nice.

“You want to sit down?” Nico is already on the couch, patting the spot next to him.

Levi slits his eyes at that.

“Are you fatally ill, or something? Did someone die? You’re being too mysterious for someone who should just say ‘sorry for screaming like a crazy person at you, dude’” An Nico actually huffs a laugh at that “What? You _were_ kind of an ass.” Levi launches on “But for the record, I also know that the blind date thing was kind of a stupid idea, ok? I know I’m not the brightest one of the bunch.” Nico actually smiles and stands up, but somehow Levi can’t seem to make his mouth stop bumbling. To think he’s come a long way and now he’s back at being _Glasses_. “I actually wanted to see  you happy because everyone was excited about having a Valentine's.” Nico is getting too close “So I thought maybe if I got you -”

And then Levi’s crazy mouth can’t say more nonsense because it’s interrupted by a kiss. Nico has his hands secured on Levi’s collar and his lips are firm and soft and it all feels so good. Levi returns the kiss on instinct while Nico brings a hand to his neck, pulling their bodies closer. It feels like Levi’s body is being electrified and a small part of his mind pictures his hair standing up like a cartoon’s. Maybe he’s in a coma and all of this is his mind making stuff up. It is possible that somehow he has stumbled and hit his head, right? He just has to figure out when he was last conscious, but he’ll do it in a moment. Because right now in this dream Nico’s kiss is better than anything he can think of, and the arm around Levi’s waist is so strong and perfect.

Nico pulls back and breaks their kiss. Levi actually follows him a few inches before allowing it to end. Only now he realises he is on his tiptoes and drops to the ground. The hands on his waist stay in place, tough, their bodies still flushed together. Dark eyes look down on him and there is a glint of happiness dancing int them.

“You have too many words, _dude_ .” Nico smiles and puts extra effort into saying ' _dude'_ like it is an endearment term now _._ Levi has to smile at that. “And I was having trouble finding mine, so maybe actions speak louder?” He sounds sheepish but so not sorry.

There are a million questions firing up into Levi’s mind right now. But he’s still in a kiss induced daze so he just rests his hands on Nico’s chest and smiles more. Does Nico have some kind of special superpower? Because of all kisses Levi had in his Life - be it with girls when he didn’t have a clue he wasn’t into them, or with the few guys he tried dating before giving up - none of them came even close to make him feel like this.

“We do have to talk though.” Nico says while squeezing Levi’s waist a little bit more.

“Yeah. We do.” Levi bounces on his feet “But can we kiss more first? ‘Cause that was _so good_ and I wasn’t ready for it to be over.”

Nico throws his head back, laughing, and Levi almost scales him up to pull his head back down. There is a happy grunt from Nico when they find each other’s lips again. Levi hums back in agreement.

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo I was suddenly inspired and this happened! What do you guys think? 
> 
>  
> 
> On a side note, the title for this fic came from this song I like so much. The lyrics actually say something like "It's not enough to set the terms/If nothing ventured nothing earned/Though odds are set against  
> In time I'll belong to you /It's how it's meant to be" and is kind of what happens in this fic? I just realized this when looking for a title and it all meshed together. It was fun.
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway, I love to chat all things schmico, just hit me up on Tumblr if you feel like, I'm @cloudofgears


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